Second Verse, Same As The First: Dodgers Limp Into Break With 5-3 Loss To Arizona

If you're old enough to remember the Dodgers beating the Twins in the 1965 World Series, you're probably old enough to remember Herman's Hermits singing "Second verse, same as the first."

That felt appropriate Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

Twenty-four hours after watching the Diamondbacks capitalize on mistakes and missed opportunities, the Dodgers turned in a performance that felt awfully familiar. Arizona erased an early three-run deficit, took advantage of shaky defense and quiet bats, and completed a three-game sweep with a 5-3 victory in the final game before the All-Star break.

There isn't much reason to dress it up beyond that.

"I think at the end of the day, they outplayed us," manager Dave Roberts said afterward. "They wanted it more, that's just the truth. Every game matters, and we didn't play well."

For a few innings, it looked as though the Dodgers might stumble into the break with a victory anyway.

Shohei Ohtani greeted Arizona opener Mitch Bratt by depositing the first pitch of the afternoon into the seats for his 22nd home run of the season, his ninth leadoff homer of the year because apparently the first batter of the game remains his preferred time to do business.

Tommy Edman added a two-run single in the third inning and Los Angeles carried a 3-0 lead into the fifth.

Then the game started to resemble Saturday.

Andy Pages was charged with an error when Tim Tawa's drive glanced off his glove at the wall in center field, helping Arizona trim the lead to 3-2 in the fifth. An inning later, the Diamondbacks tied the game after a passed ball moved Geraldo Perdomo into scoring position before Max Muncy's throw home struck the runner in the back and ricocheted away.

Moments later, Ildemaro Vargas lined the go-ahead single off Edgardo Henriquez.

The Dodgers never recovered.

"We gave away way too many bases, we didn't play good defense and then situationally we weren't good offensively," Roberts said. "When you get opportunities to cash in runs, we have to be better, and we're just not. We haven't been."

That assessment was difficult to argue with.

Outside of Ohtani's two hits and Edman's run-scoring single, the Dodgers generated little consistent pressure against Arizona pitching. Roberts singled out Kyle Tucker and Edman for quality at-bats, but acknowledged there wasn't much beyond that.

"I would give Kyle Tucker credit, he took some really good at-bats, hit the ball hard. I thought Tommy Edman took good at-bats," Roberts said. "But really outside of that, we just didn't really take good at-bats."

Tim Tawa's ninth-inning home run off Evan Phillips provided Arizona with insurance and served as one final reminder of a forgettable weekend for the Dodgers, who committed nine errors over their final five games before the break and looked every bit like a club ready for a few days away from the ballpark.

Fortunately for Los Angeles, baseball allows for resets.

"I think just flush it," Roberts said. "We're still in a really good spot. Don't let it carry over to the second half and kind of reset."

The Dodgers will have four days to do exactly that before opening the second half Friday night in New York against the Yankees.

Not exactly a soft landing.

But perhaps that's not the worst thing in the world for a team that looked ready for the All-Star break sometime around the middle innings on Sunday afternoon.